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Thursday, September 18, 2014

Congrats and Good Luck Jamie Fox!

In a surprise announcement (to put it mildly) New Jersey
Governor Chris Christie has just nominated former DOT commissioner Jamie Fox to
take his old job back (story here).Fox is a Democrat with a capital “D” so I don’t think he was on anyone’s
short list (or long list for that matter) for the job.This will keep New Jersey’s political
establishment buzzing for a while!

Fox was a fair, thoughtful, and decisive leader at NJDOT,
and I have no doubt folks there will be happy to have him back.Perhaps more importantly for the long
run, the fact that he is (1) a Democrat and (2) a consummate political
tactician suggests that maybe the governor will put forward a serious plan to
get bipartisan support for replenishing the state’s Transportation Trust Fund –
which will need a tax increase of some sort.The Trust Fund is now leveraged to the hilt and by June of
next year the revenue going into it will no longer be able to back new bonds or
to provide pay-as-you-go funding.

Perhaps coincidentally, the governor’s announcement came two
days after a major publicity launch by a coalition, Forward NJ, that has been
set up to promote Trust Fund renewal (link here).